Hacker News Reader

Comment by alex_c | Hacker News Reader

I'm a bit surprised. Some of the ideas - ok, two of the ideas, dating and "the next craigslist" - don't seem that far off from the proverbial pie-in-the-sky "Facebook killer": the hard part is getting the critical mass, and everyone wants to make one. [edit] #9 and 10, photo/video sharing and auctions, are arguably in this category as well.

I also still don't get WebOS. There must be something to it, because a lot of smart people are getting excited about the field, but I just can't see it myself... can anyone help me "see the light"?

View on HN

What do you expect? Demand is demand: There's not all that much difference between what humans want in 2008 and what they wanted in 1908. They want to listen to music, look at art and theatre, visit with their families, impress their friends, find meaning in their lives, and get laid.

Naturally, these are the waters where everybody goes fishing, year after year.

I think part of the secret, though, is to stop designing (e.g.) "the next dating site" and start designing a way to get compatible, single people into the same room. Focus on the problem, not the old solution. For example, the very word "WebOS" encourages bad habits of thought: It encourages you to look for something shaped like Windows or Linux, or for apps with a UI that reminds you of the desktop.

One reason those are broad is that our own filters are. We're interested in any dating site that also includes a solution to the chicken and egg problem.

BTW, by "Craigslist competitor" I don't mean a new Craigslist. I mean take one thing Craigslist does, and do it better. When you later expand outward from that, you don't have to expand into the rest of the stuff Craigslist does.

I just can't help not to relate these two things: Make a better "erotic service" and "personals" than Craigslist is. But will YC fund such a startup?

Personals shouldn't be a problem for investors. If the "erotic service" section is what I think it is, it probably wouldn't be a problem if you had enough other stuff so it didn't seem that was your whole business. That seems to be the strategy of indy papers like the Boston Phoenix, for example.

Thanks, I think your answer to indie newspaper is correct even global-wise

When I was a kid, the biggest indie newspaper against government in Taiwan had to support itself with those ads.

Freedom, democracy and smut can go hand in hand.

If you can become the platform everybody is building their webapp on, you are going to be the new Microsoft.

That maybe true, but you would have to make something better than all the currently available free ones. The best platforms seem to be worked on by the smartest people that were just trying to solve their own problems, and then give the solution away for free.

I don't see the need for any "Facebook Killer" proverb. Facebook seems to be doing a pretty good job of killing itself without any external assistance.

Facebook is killing itself right now? Are you sure?

Yeah. Most people I know who were using it heavily last summer (including myself) only log on when they receive a personal message now - and they don't even know about the Beacon flop/privacy disaster. Facebook apps are for the most part spam.

I don't think they're going bankrupt yet, for sure - but they're a looong way down from that $15b valuation some months ago.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com